I am done!!!! and i got a 96 on my final project!!! ahhh now i want to stay.
last night was amazing. i met some mexican kids and they cracked an egg full of confetti on my head. then out with the semiarians then long walk with pete.

good night.
i love queretaro.

lunes y martes monday and tuesday

last monday here, is now over. we made pinattas (sp) in convo class then i did my presentation which went okay, my teacher kept interjecting with information, which was helpful, but not when i had already written my paper. it was an interesting experience. after school i had a nice chat with christian, a mexican student here at the tech that i had interviewed previously for my conversation class. then i headed home and eat comida with paw. after comida i finished up my thank you notes, all but the one for my family. and then finished off my nutella and loaf of bread. yummy. then i headed over to toastmasters, but was way early so i stopped and got some money, and i treated myself to a sweet treat again, pan con azucar. yum. i went to toastmasters and this time people talked to me! ahh.. scary. i had a long conversation with this guy who is working in queretaro and it was his first time at toasties. also with the general evaluator. the director of themes, or the table topics master, asked me if i would like to particpate in the temas, as they call them. ha.. i said no.. ha. maybe next year. came home and went to bed ready to start a busy tuesday.
today i am going out to lunch with my señora and my friend emily and her señora. they are friends and so are we so it works out perfecto. it is an italian resturant that supposably has good pizza.. yum.

guanajauto

i should be preparing to present my paper on the virgen of guadalupe but i have lost some of my motivation, and i think i feel pretty prepared, except for the spanish part which i dont know if that will help me to prepare even more. nearing the end of my trip, and starting to rap thing up... all except school which will go full blast until it is over, or the fat lady sings. i had a nice little vacation, in guanajuato. i saw so many things, i was a bit overwhelmed as i read throught the book but i managed to do everything i really wanted to do, in a relaxed atmposhphere. i had a blast hanging out with the seminarians, and we ate at really good resturants! overall it was a welcome relaxing change from what has been go go go go. it also was a bit of an adventure, i stayed in a hostel, and had to figure out where things were and such. this time next week i will be talking to you all, and not writing on this bloggy.

culinary delights

yesterday was a good day. i went out to waffles at the great waffle place with christy. we had a nice long talk then meandered back to the school of gaby to catch up with the group going to pedro´s reading. Pedro our resident director translated a play. and got some famous actor to read it. it was really interesting, but long and i didnt really understand a lot. then we were on our way home, and decided to walk by the crepe place. and alas, we had to enter for a crepe. we split a banana and chocolate, and a cheese and spinach crepe. SO GOOD. i went home, full of food. but very content.

a mexican outing

heres a classic case of mexican culture. so yesterday i came home and my dad invited me out to comida with the family and his cousin. i accepted, becasue i didnt have very much homework and was hungggry. we got in the car at probably about 2.30. drove for a while stopped at a couple stops, and finally made it to costco. we sat down outside and all shared a pizza. then we wandered around costco for a while coming out with eggs and a bathing suit. the whole excursion took a long time. we returned around 5.30. after that i went on a run. then headed over to coffee brown cafeteria and savored my one dessert of the day una maltada. and did my homework. then i came back and read for a couple hours, watched some TV ate cena. showered and went to bed. a nice relaxing day. today is the cooking class and harry potter! yaya!

yay an interesting post

in DF at the museum of... anthroplogy..


in queretaro on friday night, me waiting for pete and the girls i ended up hanging out with after the seminarians. it was elises 21st birthday the one by me.



this is before the flamanco preformance when we went to this waffle place. it was very cool!! all 60´s ish.





this is at the flamanco preformance on sat night in the centro.






i will not even try to catch up instead i will try and start again. so yesterday i came home to an empty house because my family was driving my sister to her camp. i ate comida and watched the amazing race. sweet! for dessert i had chocolate ice cream with peanut butter and nutella and peanut butter on toast. yum. then i tried to do some studying although the test i am studying for was a bit nebulous... i tried calling some people to find out what actually we were to be studying. everyone was out. i then tried calling people in my neighborhood to go out to coffee or something. once again everyone was out. I called jamie and she was home and agreed to go out to coffee or milk since she doesnt like coffee with me. we met in the middle and headed to brown coffee cafeteria.. ha. nice name huh. i had a latte and a brownie with ice cream yummmy. we had a nice long chat then i headed home for more studying.

update...

a bit of an update.
the past couple days.
wends. went out to comida with a couple girls, some from the 2nd session.

thurs. went home for comida then went to the centro to take a dancing class. it was pretty hard. we learned the cumbo, which i hear is a variation of salsa. then cristy and i hurried home to make arroz con leche with my sister. we ended up all in the kitchen (my brother his friend diego, my sister cristy and i) it was a fun time!
now i just sent off my history paper to a spanish expert who owes me some editing. and this weekend i will be working on my last paper, about a novel i read. it should be a fairly low key weekend consisting of a flamanco on sat, and a leyends tour tonight with peter.

sorry i have not been more consistant on this blogger lately.

once again, hard time because i need to be writing a paper right now. but went to the centro yesterday with cristy to go to the art exhibit. it was great. we each got these huge sweet rolls. they were soo good. covered in icing. then i went home some homework. today after school i am going out to comida with a couple of girls we were going to go to the waffle resturant but, it doesnt open until 4 and we cant wait that long.

once again super busy so not much of an update.
but i got a 87 on my composition. happiest i have ever been about an 87! hope all is well.

mexico city was amazing! this week will be super busy. i will update you all if i have an extra minute or two. some fun things we did in DF were go to the old presidents castle, the cathedral, the national archeological meseum.

i am falling down on my blogging duties. wends watched pans labrinth with the group then went out for food afterwards. yesterday i studied. today i gave a presentation on los tres reyes magos and now am waiting to board the bus to mexico city. DF. i am excited. happy birthday nat. and happy aniversery tomorrow parentals.

4 de julio

yesterday i got a lot accoplished work wise. then i went out to coffee with pete and he filled me in on his year. rode the bus home to a house full of ana paulas friends doing bible study. there was a girl, well i think the leader, who was from philly. it was fun listening to them. i did my homework then did a lot of writing. i need to rejuviate, but here i am not quite sure how. ugh. ate a huge cena, because i didnt have comida yesterday then did some reading... i have not had time to read any of my fun books! then went to bed.
Woke up and...
Happy Fourth of July!
not feeling very energetic today, and still not all better from the 9 peso quesadillas i ate in morelia. i think i may head over to the school to watch pans labrinth. and maybe if dr. merrill fills me in on what they are doing i will go along. we will see.
presentation tomorrow or friday on the tres reyes magos... like our santa.. who would have though..?
enjoy your celebrations! eat some watermelon for me. and a hamburger.

malo.

Yesterday i went to the centro after comida to meet with my composition teacher regarding my composition. i was able to correct a lot of her corrections, with her help. i was amazed that she took the time to meet with me for over an hour and walk me through this. It was super nice, although i can tell she thinks i am not very smart... due to my mistakes. i dont do well editing in english, let alone spanish. She edited my paper due tomorrow and i figured out what changes need to be made. I meandered over to san anotinios and attended mass. then i walked to the bus station and went home to study more for my history test. my family´s cousins were over last night playing the guitarra so the house was hopping. i ate cena, which consisted of cantalope and cerel. yum. today was a long day. early morning got on the bus where the bus driver gave me a mean look when i tried to pay him the student rate. then came to class. where first class convo i did fairly well. we needed to explain something we drew and i thought i was comprehensible. composition was uneventful. break consisted of me editing my paper. and briefly chatting with mom. then i went to history to brave my test. boo.. i dont know how well i did. i knew the info, but the spanish may have killed me. i was the last one to finish and when i came up to turn in my test she handed me another piece of work and said it was muy malo and that i needed to redo it. BOOO. i was so mad. no me gusta este clase. and that assignment... was during our weekend trip we had to go to the library and research this dude. i was the only one who did it at the library everyone else did it at home. ahh stupid. i have been working on my presentation, and redoing that thing. and have more homework tonight. but no i am hungry so i may get something to eat on the way to meet pete for coffee. tomorrow is the 4th... always a weird feeling when you are in a different country.

end of weekend trip and beginning of the week.

another update on the weekend happenings.
we got up for breakfast and i had fruit hot cakes and hot chocolate. then we boarded the bus, late as usual and headed for the muellas (docks) we then took a boat over to the island that starts with a P. and walked around there a bit. it was quite touristy but it has this big monument and we got to climb all the way up, and stick our heads out the top. it was literally a hole that you can stand on this ledge and hoist yourself up to squeeze out to top. it probably wasnt too safe, but it was beautiful. then we went to santa clara de cobre and watched copper artisians at work. then came back home and raced to try and buy some churros, the churro lady was closed, and so darcy and I went and ate some cake at little cafe. we joined jamie and megan for dinner and chatted for a bit then went back our room to continue our chat. the next day we checked out of the hotel and went to a little town to see very old olive trees, and ruins. the scenery was once again amazing. the clouds here are so fluffly. :) i took an insane amount of pictures. we then drove to morelia to get comida. jamie megan and I ventured out to this whole in the wall place, where i ate lunch a chicken quesidilla and water for a dollar fifty. i think it made me kind of sick, but it was the true mexican flavor. then i got coffee and headed back to the city center to try and get on the tour bus, and find a pay phone. i tried calling peter like 10 times but i could not get the hang of the telephone so i gave up and went to find the tour. as it turns out, the tour that our RD pedro had planned was closed, and i was the only student who wanted to go on it. I went on a guided tour of the city by pedro and cecila. we went to an extraordinary church, and thier native language is spanish so they got us into this convent to see it. it was pretty cool. i ended up asking him for advice on the academic situation, and he gave me 0 help. ha. got intouch with pete because david also from last year is visiting and i wanted to say hello to him before he left. unfortunatly before we could solidify plans, the bells in the cathedral started ringing, and that was the end of that. we got back way later than i or anyone else expected. the thing said 6.30 got in at 8.30. but i managed to meet up with pete and david for a little while in jardin zenia while watching the dancing. i cut out early to try and catch the bus, and that attepmt failed. i hailed a taxi after about 45 min of waiting and trying to get one. went home to an empty house. unpacked and went to bed. Tonight is toastmasters, and i really want to go at least once before i leave. but i got my first essay back and got worse than i did on my first test. i am heading to the centro to meet with her directly after comida. man. i dont even get a break to breathe.

Michocàn

Yesterday: met pete at mass, then walked out to a resturant and hung out there for a while. walked to the bus stop at night with a girl who goes to Olè too, Jess. She is super nice and here to teach at a school similar to the one i worked at. Had a bit of an adventure with the buses because they stop running at like 9.30 so i waited for a long time after she told me that they stopped at 10.00 and ended up taking a cab home.
Hola. Today we had no classes yet instead left early for Michucan. (sp). We first stopped in Morelia, the capital of the state of Michocan, visited the cathedral, a house with a bunch of murals, and the famous "candy market." i was not too adventurous with the candy. i settled on a coconut stick thing. it was okay. then we got on the bus and drove to Pas-qua. (sp) there we were told that we needed to come to the library, where we were given an assignment to do for out history class. are you kidding. ugh. we were all tierd from a long day of sightseeing and now we had to do a research assignment. boo. we then checked into our hotel, i am sharing a room with jamie. then we went to go eat. i got a hamburger.. ha. everyone else is eating as we speak... ha. i feel like a bit of a loner.. but i am not trying to be. i enjoyed my dinner with jamie. whatever.

A typical day.

Before I start my regular entry here are some questions i will address.
What time do you go to school what are the class titles, How much time is spent in each class? Do you have much free time? How long is the bus commute? Do you head home for comida every day? What time is comida and cena?

I get up each morning at 7:25 earlier if i need to shower, eat breakfast, generally consisting of apple juice, maybe eggs, yogurt or quesidillas. I catch the bus at around 8:00 and it drops me off infront of my school at aroung 8:25. My first class called language in context, which is a coversation class starts at 8:30-9:30. this is my favorite of all the classes, the teacher is upbeat and peppy and she prepares fun and interesting activities. I stay in the same room for composision at 9:45-10:45. this class is all about grammer.. and killer. we have 3 page papers due for the first couple weeks. After 10;45 i have a couple hour break which i usually spend on the computer writing emails and typing or researching. then off to history at 12:45-1:45. this class will be interesting in the future but now we are talking about mesoamerica stuff which i am not really into. i walk along way to the bus stop get on the bus and go home. Comida is served sometime after i get home, at like 3 maybe. I usually do some homework after that.. really you are supposed to take a nap, but no time for naps. and then at night i either stay there and continue the homework, or go out to coffee to walmart or to the centro. cena is served anytime between 8-sleep and i usually eat yogurt or cerel.

first test...

Hello.
Yesterday consisted of school, home for comida, (with a crazy crazy bus drive, we all almost flew down the isle... numerous times. i think he was having a bad day and taking pleasure in seeing all these american kids nervously laughing after slamming into eachother). then i did some homework and headed to the centro, where i took a nice long walk and once again tried to look for some watermelon something for my host moms birthday. no luck. Dr. Merrill told me where the semianarians were going to mass and i decieded to say hello. It was great to be back with the guys! I went to mass with them, and then went for drinks with everyone. after that peter and jess (a recent graduate of a catholic school in DC) and I headed to another church where we heard a kids choir from boston. they were really good! it was fun... came home by taxi, alone... which supposably you arnt supposed to do, so i just got really nervous but it was fine. i think people like to scare you. today was fine until i got my first test back... now it is not so fine. BLAH. bad bad grade. i finished writing my second composition, but now it makes me super nervous because i got such a bad grade on the test. off to history class.. which is not very enjoyable, then home for comida, to walmart to get my senora flowers, in place of the watermelon, homework, then back to centro for coffee with peter.
up early tomorrow to meet everyone to go to morelia.. and another place i cannot even begin to spell. i guess i will report on that excusion on monday.

oh a kid in my class got bit by a scorpin last night. it was in his bed. EWWW.

Yesterday after I wrote I went to my killer history class, where no one really can understand her... its actually a bit comical, you can look around the class and see blank stares, mouths open. ha. I then ventured to the centro to try and find a gift for my host mom. (the attempt failed, due to our sore feet and not really wanting to walk around to look for a watermelon something.) We walked all the way from our school to the centro, which is a pretty good walk. then we walked around trying to find a waffle resturant for comida. no luck. we settled on the italian cafe in plaza de perros. we let our sore feet take a rest then ventured to the bus stop. home i went then studied for an insaine amount of time for the test that i just finished taking. ugh. yucky. now i should be starting on a composition. no time for sitting around here. i am torn, the fun things here could be just as benifical to improving your language, but you are not getting graded on them. ugh. yesterday we got some really good churros and my stomach is rumbling for some more. tonight i think i will go and try to meet up with dr. merrill, peter, and yancy... i still cannot get over the fact that almost the whole crew is here from last year... minus jason, lee and ignacious. ha. hope all is well. off to start my composition.

Another day of classes. Tough... ha. but alas yesterday I finished my first composition, and went home for comida of chicken rice and potatoes. I did some homework, which I hardly made a dent in. everything in spanish takes so much more time than anything else. Then I took a break and met a couple friends on the corner to walk to the coffee shop (convieniently named the italian coffee company.) ps. dad-it has that coffee maker with the gold eagle on top. i went crazy. an oreo cappy frappee thingy and a peice of cheese cake with strawberries. i ate it fast too... wow. i havn´t eaten sweets in a while, and i had a bad stomach ache after... ha. we sat and chatted with our coffee and treats for over two hours. yum. then i came back and tried to do more homework, but ended up just writing in my journal and going to bed. today i am going to skip comida and venture to the centro to find comida, and ole and maybe some old friends. so odd. oh also i am on a mission to find something with a watermelon on it for my host mom´s birthday.

Update...

So a quick update from the couple of days that I have not had access to a computer. On friday, we went to copy a book for class and about an hour later, we came out. Definitly a mexican thing.
On Friday night we all met at gabis school for emilys birthday. we had cake and candy. then it started POURING. all 25 of us walked to the centro and everyone was wandering around looking for a bar, i suggested the one by the really good resturant...to get out of the rain... We all hung out there, then they ventured to a discotec, kaitlyn and and i went home. up early for a day at bernal. Bernal was beautiful. it is the third monolith in the world. i sat out over on this rock over bernal. wow... it was so pretty.
on sunday it was a low key day. i went to church with my family and then ate at home while they went to a birthday party for a church kid. I watched the soccer game and some spanish music videos while doing homework.
then it started raining super hard. and i had to walk to walmart to get something for my class. torillas and poztle.. it was an adventure.
then i came home and watched a movie with the family, and ate cena and did more homework and went to bed.
only to wake up to another week of brutal classes... ahhh..

Wal-Mart and McDonalds

I made it home on the bus, and got off where I was supposed to despite the vague directions in spanish. Yesterday me and a couple of friends went on an adventure to walmart. I wanted to see a movie, but that plan got squashed. We went to walmart and waited for jamie for a bit then walked over to mcdonalds and the girls i was with both ate. we walked back only to be greeted with an annocement looking for us. yikes. we got our stuff at walmart, and then headed out. Our group split up and jamie and I walked emily a bit of the way home then we went to an internet cafe for her to finish her work. It is right on the corner of my house but i still had to wait for her because she says she is not good with directions. I walked her home, then went back and worked on my essay for a while. wrote in the journal read a bit of blink and went to bed. oh yeah. i ate my reeses. last american candy for 5 more weeks...

día 4

I should be doing some homework now, but instead I am catching up on my emailing and other sorts of correspondence. Yesterday we took a tour of the centro but I was leading the pack. I also asked my resident director if I could get money and he was like... well I dont want you to get lost. ha. I had to remind him that I have been here more time then he has. I got my money and met back up with them. Everything here is an experience nueva. We (mi señora y hermano) went to blockbuster, and that was different. Andrés got a squeezy candy flavored which was called spider man. I tasted it and in good ol´ mexican style it tasted like, lemon or lime, and salt and chile. ew... not my idea of a tasty treat. He enjoyed it though. Tonight my friends and I are going to be venturing to walmart, and then hopefully to the centro to see a movie with the group, considering we make it there... ha. I lead some people back to the school we met at, and we made it although I second guessed myself. Off to finish some homework.

Today was the second day of classses. All is going well. Yesterday we all ate at a taco resturant and it was pretty good. I have been told I dont eat a lot like everytime we sit down. Andrés cooked me cena yesterday and asked if everyone in my family eats as little as i do. I replied, si. I took the bus with my señora this morning along with a bunch of other students. Tonight we have a group visit around the centro, but I need to buy some books so hopefully I will be able to slip away and get them. We also went to walmart yesterday which is in walking distance of my house. Wow. culture shock. Just go into the candy isle and you will see what I am talking about. Adios.

En Queretaro

I have arrived safely in Queretaro. All went as planned with the flights and such. We turned out to be the only UO people on the flight. We got through customs and immigration okay, despite the mishap of me saying that I know a little bit of spanish to the immigration officer, but then couldnt understand what he was saying. Oops. We all (or most of the students ended up getting on the same bus 8am to Queretaro) we all arrived in the station and got off. Then we stood in the station waiting for Pedro our resident director, because we all were nervous to call our familias. I ended up calling and she said she was leaving for church at 12. I tried to get in a group to share a cab, yet in reality we ended up with two cabs and three people. I volunteered to venture to my homestay alone. I tried to figure out where I was going, with little luck. But I was dropped off right infront of my house. I undid the locked gate and stepped into the patio. Diana is my señora. I caught them right before church. I decided to skip out on church because i was zonked. I unpacked in my new room, which is really the 14 year old boys room (complete with gun, dried snake spine i think, and other 14 year old boy prizes) I layed down to close my eyes and ended up taking a nap. For comida we had spegegtti and chicken with white sauce. It was fine but I wasnt that hungry. I gave them their gifts and they really liked all of them. A candle holder with beeswax candles, and an oregon rain drop and the favorite the pink martini cd. I sat down to read and a short while after the family jumped up because their crazy neighbor had fell. I read some more and then the next thing i knew i was woken up for our meeting at the school. We drove to the school and got our schedules and such. i turned down the chance to hang out with the extended family, because i didnt feel quite right, and was convinced i needed more sleep.
i feel like i am in a new city. i dont know the area i am in, and am a bit confused on where the tec. is in comparision to where i was last year. still just confused on all of it. I have a class at 8:30, one at 9:45 and one at 12:45 so I will have a bit of time to correspond unless my homework load is horrible. Hope all is well.

And the adventure begins...

Hello All,
I am headed off to the airport and figured I'd write my first offical entry. I feel like I have overpacked, and I probably have. I will hopefully unload some stuff there, like the gifts for my family. After much debate, we settled on getting them an Oregon raindrop, A pink Martini CD, Beeswax candles, and a "american museum" candle holder. I also got the kids (14 and 17) some candy, that is if I don't eat it on the ride there. I have also been trying to plan out my telephone conversation to the family when I get to the Queretaro bus station. Zoe helped me out with figuring out how to say "This is" "Esta es." Best case senario I can understand what they say back.

In the words of some song I cannot remember right now: Here I go again on my own...